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Intro Mary Garden
(See appended news item)
Peace on Earth - Fatima Revisited
John S. Stokes Jr. Mary's Gardens Website
December 8, 2002
Prayer and Sacrifices for the Graces of Peace
At Fatima Mary exhorts us to pray the Rosary for the graces of
peace for the world, through the intercession and mediation of her
Immaculate Heart with the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and to offer to
Jesus, through her, the sacrifice of our daily lives and duties in
reparation for the effects of sins in the world, that souls may
be responsive to the graces prayed for:
- "Recite the Rosary every day...to obtain peace for the
world."
- "The sacrifice required of every person is the fulfillment
of his duties in life".
- "Tell everybody that God gives graces through the
Immaculate Heart of Mary....Ask them to plead for peace
from the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the Lord has
confided the peace of the world to Her."
Mary's request is simple, and has been complied with widely by
devotees, through the circulation of "Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima"
statues for Rosary prayer services for peace in parishes
throughout the world - followed by the World War II just peace
settlements with defeated Germany, Italy and Japan, the end of
Apartheid in South Africa and the astonishing termination of the
cold war threat of super-power mutually assured nuclear
destruction. ((See appended news item))
While simple in themselves, and seen by some as only private
"devotions", the prayers and sacrifices called for by Mary at
Fatima as the means to peace are based on profound truths which
warrant the fullest examination and compliance as we address the
current threats of world aggression, terrorism, the proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction, and defense against these.
The Earthly Peaceable Kingdom
The basic religious truth implicit in Mary's request is that we
are now to extend the focus of our work and prayers from the
Kingdom of God within us and from the rising of our souls from a
violent world to the peace of heaven after death, to the building
and coming of God's Peaceable Kingdom in this world, for
transfiguration at the end of time, with the General Resurrection,
into the eternal New Heaven and New Earth.
This is in accordance with God's teaching to Adam to care for,
develop and fill the originally harmonious earth; with the
proclamation of the Angel of the Nativity, "Peace on earth to men
of good will"; with the petition of the Lord's Prayer, "Your
Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven", and
with the conclusion of the Come Holy Spirit, "Send forth your
Spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of
the earth." With the illuminative mystical rising of our souls to
heavenly union with God, we likewise experience God's will that we
"return to earth" for the building of his Kingdom.
Historically, Christ's preaching of the Gospel of peace - of
resisting not evil, doing good for those that harm you, praying
for one's enemies and persecutors, turning the other cheek, going
the second mile, etc. - was practiced, in union with his Sacrifice
of the Cross, in the first three centuries of the Christian era
by the apostles and disciples, and by the Roman martyrs - "the
seed of the Church".
But, with the political establishment of the Church in Rome in the
4th century, killing was approved for the just defense of
Christian society; and then, subsequently, also for the defense
and spread of the Faith, as in the Crusades and the conquest of
the Americas.
Now, after two millennia of conquest, forced conversions, auto de
fe, torture, crusades, progroms, inquisitions, repression,
oppression, enslavement, imperialism and national power struggles
participated in by Christians - culminating in 39,000,000
combatants killed in wars world-wide in the 20th Century, and in
the development of weapons of mass destruction - it is
questionable whether there can be a "war to end war" or that
killing can build the earthly Peaceable Kingdom willed by God.
It would appear that just as after the fall of the world from
harmony and grace, God left it continue in its sinful ways for
centuries in order for it to recognize the need for, to seek, and
to accept a redeeming messiah for the restoration of grace; so,
too, after the fall of the Church from the gospel of peace to the
employment of violence, God left Christians follow the path of
violence for sixteen centuries to World War I before he revealed
through Mary at Fatima the means to the establishment of peace on
earth, viz. prayers (now, of the Rosary) for the graces of peace,
accompanied by the widespread sacrificial offering by Christians,
with and through her intercession, of all their daily
aggravations, adversities and sufferings, for and with Christ, in
reparation for all the violence-inducing, grace-blocking, effects
of sin circulating in the world. God is neither "right" nor
"left", "conservative" nor "liberal", but sends the graces
prompting decisons for peace in each concrete situation.
Therefore, while wars of just defense against aggressors and
terrorists are morally permitted and necessary, it is equally
obligatory morally, for the building of the earthly Peaceable
Kingdom, that these be followed by the establishment of world-wide
truth, justice, love and freedom - in accordance with Pope John
XXIII's encyclical, "Pacem in Terris"; and the Vatican II
"Constitution on the Church in the Modern World".
But, as revealed at Fatima, for this to be accomplished, we, in
the divine/human sharing and cooperation desired by God for
Creation, are to join, through our own sacrificial offerings, in
Christ's sacrificial offering not only for the restoration of
grace to the world, but also in reparation for the effects of sin
circulating in the world - darkness of intellect, weakness of will
and disorderly affections, in relation to God's truth, will and
love - that hearts may be opened to the promptings of the graces
of peace, for which we pray the Rosary.
The hightened focus of the Church on the building of God's earthly
Peaceable Kingdom has been reiterated on numerous occasions by
Pope John Paul II; most recently in his call for meditation on the
third Luminous Rosary Mystery of "Christ's announcement of the
kingdom of God for invitation to conversion", and in his
amplifying comment, "this is our great hope and our invocation:
'Your Kingdom come!' - a Kingdom of peace, justice, and serenity,
which will re-establish the original harmony of creation."
In the original goodness and harmony of Creation it was not
understood by our first parents that the guiding promptings of
God's grace were necessary, in addition to human reason, for the
divine/human cooperative sharing in the development of the earth
and the building of its culminating Kingdom. It is now clear,
from the the disruptive effects of sin following the fall from
grace and harmony, that God's grace is indeed needed, and now more
than ever, for the resumed building of the Kingdom in the redeemed
world.
Reparations For Peace
As stated, while Christ has redeemed the world for this resumed
building in grace of the earthly Peaceable Kingdom, the effects of
sin still circulating in the world must also be repaired for
before the graces of peace can fully be received and responded to.
The essence of Mary's revelation at Fatima is, accordingly, that
these effects of sin are to be repaired in the aggregate through
the habitual sacrificial offering of the duties, work, hardships,
adversities and sufferings of our daily lives to this end - in
union with Jesus, who takes them upon himself and offers them as
his own, with those of all the world, in the continuation of his
Sacrifice of Calvary in all the daily masses of the world - that
the graces of peace and their effects, bestowed in response to our
prayers, may reach hearts of leaders and activists, prompting them
to action for peace.
We are to pray and sacrifice for the reparation of the sins of the
living, for the coming of the earthly Peaceable Kingdom, with the
same conviction and regularity as we pray for the deceased for the
purgatorial reparation for their sins that their souls may rise to
their heavenly rest.
To this end we undertake each daily task, and respond habitually
to each aggravation or adversity experienced, sacrificially, with
a prayer, such as,
"All for and with you, my Jesus, through Mary, for the
graces of peace on earth."
or,
"All for and with you, my Jesus, through Mary, in reparation
for the effects of sin in the world, that the hearts of
rulers and terrorists may be moved by the promptings of the
graces oF peace."
In this, God's grace is bestowed on all; not just on the baptized
and sanctified. Thus, the Catholic Encyclopedia states of actual
graces:
"As the object of these graces is, according to their
nature, the spread of the Kingdom of God on earth and
the sanctification of men, their possession in itself
does not exclude personal unholiness. . . .
"Actual grace is that unmerited interior assistance
which God, in virtue of the merits of Christ, confers
upon fallen man in order to strengthen...his infirmity
resulting from sin"
Thus, in addition to the reparations we undertake for our own sins
- as in the penances given us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation;
and the praying of indulgenced prayers - we are also to undertake
reparations, in charity and in the communion of saints, for others
than ourselves.
Of this, the Catholic Encyclopedia states, on Reparation,
"We are restored to grace through the merits of Christ's
Death, and that grace enables us to add our prayers,
labors, and trials to those of Our Lord' and fill up those
things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ"
(Col., i, 24). We can thus make some sort of reparation to
the justice of God for our own offences against Him; and by
virtue of the Communion of the Saints, the oneness and
solidarity of the mystical Body of Christ, we can also make
satisfaction and reparation for the sins of others.
Similarly, Thomas Aquinas states in the Summa, on Satisfaction,
"It is written (Gal. 6:2): 'Bear ye one another's burdens.'
. . . one man's act becomes another's, by means of charity,
whereby we are 'all one in Christ.'" (Gal. 3:28).
"One man can satisfy for another, provided he be in a state
of charity, so that his works may avail for satisfaction.
. . . And since greater charity is evidenced by a man
satisfying for another than for himself, less (sacrifice) is
required of him who satisfies for another."
Sanctification Through the Rosary
A further truth here is that since God has created the world to
show forth and share with us his goodness and action, the building
and coming of the earthly Peaceable Kingdom is thus to be a
cooperative spiritual work - of our sanctified initiatives
together with the prompting of God's graces. Therefore, the more
we are sanctified in our spiritual life and work, the more we
are attuned to and receive God's responsive sharing with us in the
bestowal of his grace.
To this end, as we respond to Mary's request to pray the Rosary
for the graces of peace, we are thus to pray also for the graces
of our own sanctification - through our self-examination and
mortification of our spiritual defects as we meditate on the
Rosary mysteries - that, with our increasing sanctification, our
prayers and sacrifices may merit from God an ever-increasing
responsive bestowal on world leaders and activists of the graces
and reparations for peace for which we pray and sacrifice. Mary
has, further, requested our fasting as a mortification to this
end.
We extend our meditation on Mary's mysteries to her everyday life
as a person, as a model for our daily lives. The beauty and purity
of her household articles, as envisaged through their flower
symbols, serve to mirror for us the purity of her intentions as
she worked with them - reminding us that, in emulation of Mary,
we ourselves are likewise to undertake all our own daily tasks
for spiritual intentions.
Of this St. Louis de Montfort has said ("True Devotion" par. 222):
"(Mary's) intentions are so pure that that she gave more
glory to God by the smallest of her actions, say, twirling
her distaff, or making a stitch, than did...all the saints
together in all their most heroic deeds,"
and (par. 260):
"In all our actions we must look upon Mary, although a
simple human being, as the perfect model of every virtue
and perfection, fashioned by the Holy Spirit for us to
imitate, as far as our limited capacity allows. In every
action then we should consider how Mary performed it or
how she would perform it if she were in our place. For
this reason, we must examine and meditate on the great
virtues she practised during her life."
Mary's immaculate purity, her utter humility, and her total divine
assent are the perfect example for our emulation of the
divine/human sharing for which we were all created by God.
Moreover, Mary's own divine sharing is ever extended as she
universally intercedes, mediates, and exercises the other
prerogatives divinely bestowed on her for us, in her union with
God.
Finally, in our union with Christ's Passion and Cross through our
union with Mary, her tears, and the sword of sorrow piercing her
soul, we are enabled to enter more fully in his Sacrifice through
our own daily sacrifices, for which she called at Fatima, which
Christ takes upon himself, with those of all the world, in the
continuation of his sacrifice of Calvary in all the daily masses
of the world.
We experience Christ's direct appeal for union with his sufferings
most poignantly as we envisage his contact with us through his
eyes, as he surely contacted Mary in his call to her to join in his
Sacrifice as co-redemptrix. We envisage this from our beholding of
paintings of the relic, Veronica's Veil, which reputedly retained
the image of Christ's face as, during the carrying of the Cross,
Veronica ("true image") used it to wipe the sweat from his brow -
the most penetrating aspect of the image being our spiritual
communion with his suffering eyes.
Mary's Intercession and Mediation
Mary beseeches that our prayers and sacrifices be offered to the
Sacred Heart of her Son through her Immaculate Heart, so that she
can make our prayers and sacrifices also hers, augmenting for us
their meritoriousness - as St. Louis de Montfort teaches - as she
receives them for Jesus; that they may thereby elicit an enhanced
reciprocal gratuitous cooperative response of grace and reparation
from the Father, as they are presented to him by Jesus.
De Montfort (224):
"Our Blessed Lady, in her immense love for us, is eager to
receive into her virginal hands the gift of our actions,
imparting to them a marvelous beauty and splendor, and
presenting them herself to Jesus most willingly. More
glory is given to our Lord in this way than when we make
our offering with our own...hands."
Further, Mary, as the divinely appointed universal mediatrix of
all graces bestowed on the world - whereby the peace of the world
has been confided to her, as she stated at Fatima - mediates and
distributes, with her Son, the Father's bestowed graces and
reparations where and to whom they are most needed and effective
for peace. Therefore, in accordance with de Montfort's counsel
for true devotion to Mary that we make our all our petitions
"disinterested", we make our petitions for the graces for peace
general - leaving it up to her, in her union with God's will, as
to where and to whom they are to be directed. "Not my will, but
yours be done."
Each time we pray for graces or offer our sacrifices, through
Mary's intercession, we are thus not dependently petitioning the
mercy of a remote, authoritarian God, through her; but
participating in her endowed universal mediation for a loving God
who created the world to show forth and share with us his goodness
and action, and who accordingly wants and awaits our prayers and
sacrifices so that he can indwell with us sharingly, and
cooperatively for establishing peace on earth - with its
culmination in the building and coming of the earthly Peaceable
Kingdom of truth, justice, love and freedom. We thereby also
enable Mary to extend, through us, her mediation, in ever fuller
accomplishment of the overall human sharing, hers and ours,
desired by God for Creation.
In this we are to be ever mindful of the basis for Mary's
universal divine intercession and mediation: that for the fullest
accomplishment of the personal divine/human sharing desired for
Creation, God desired to bring one human person into total union
with the three Divine Persons and their action in the world - as
possible by virtue of human creation in the divine image and
likeness.
The first human, Adam, was called to this divine union, but
following on his sin of disobediece, the call was in time then
made to the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the Annunciation. By virtue
of her immaculate purity, her utter humility and her total assent
and fidelity to God's word, Mary was brought into this union with
God - beginning with her call to and acceptance of the Divine
Motherhood, and completed with her heavenly Assumption and her
endowment with the privileges and prerogatives of the universal
mediation of all prayers of humans to God, and of all God's graces
and providence to humans.
In the fullness of this personal divine/human sharing, Mary thus
shares universally with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as our
spiritual mother, protector, nurturer, healer, consoler, guide,
helper, co-redemptrix, sanctifier, illuminator, advocate,
intercessor, mediatrix and queen.
This is set forth by Christine Rosetti in her poem, "Ave":
"Mother of the Fair Delight,
Thou handmaid perfect in God's sight,
Now sitting fourth beside the Three,
Thyself a Woman-Trinity,
Being a daughter born to God,
Mother of Christ from stall to rood,
And wife unto the Holy Ghost . . ."
Operation of the Graces of Peace
The essence of Mary's summons to us, therefore, is that peace does
not come through military victories and cease-fires; through
strategy, tactics and timing of power struggles; through
negotiations or dialog; nor through discussions of the dialectics,
logistics, issues or events of war and peace in the media - as
such; but through prayers for the graces and sacrifices of
reparation for peace that only can prompt leaders and activists
freely to de-escalate violence, and to reach across alienations to
cooperate in the truth, justice, love and freedom of peace of the
Peaceable Kingdom.
Providentially, in the modern world the effects of the graces and
reparations for peace prayed for can prompt leaders and activists
indirectly, as well as directly - through conversations, meetings,
conferences, studies, commentary, the news media, talk and call-in
shows, the Internet, voting, polls, demonstrations, protests, etc.
Thus, while the issues of war are "big", the prompting of just one
or two key leaders by grace or its effects may make the difference
in avoiding war or de-escalating the violence of an existing war.
And the bestowal of these prompting graces for peace indeed may be
in divine response to the "little" prayers and reparations for
them offered by devotees to God through Mary - for their
enhancement, intercession and mediation by her as she presents them
to her Divine Son, and with him, to the Father, in accordance
with her request at Fatima.
Equally essential to peace is the living of our own immediate
relationships "in virtue of that life which takes away the
occasion for all wars" (George Fox), as we pray "Lord, make me
the instrumwnt of your peace." (St. Francis) - with recourse to
habitual self-examination for any defects in this respect, and to
overcoming them through the graces and penitential mortifications
of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The aggregate of individuals
thus reaching across the immediate alienations in their own lives
and communities in love provides the spiritual melieu and support
for leadership acts for peace.
In view of all this, in our faith that God's will WILL be done,
and that his Kingdom WILL come, and that Mary's message at Fatima
reveals the prayers and sacrifices we are to undertake that this is
to come about, it then behooves us urgently to undertake our
prayers and sacrifices that the world path to peace be renewed.
Mary Garden Prayers and Sacrifices For Peace
Those of us who Mary-garden are quickened in our prayers for the
intention of the bestowal of graces of peace on earth each time we
behold the flower symbols of Our Lady's life and mysteries; and
are quickened in the actual renewal of our virtual offering of the
overall work of our garden planning, digging, planting and care
for the intention of sacrificial reparation for the effects of sin
in the world each time we make the sign of the cross as we take up
our gardening work.
Since the cooperative divine response merited by our prayers and
sacrifices for peace is proportionate to the sanctified purity of
intention with which we offer them, we look to the purity and
beauty of the numerous flower symbols of Mary's household articles
and work, which, as we tend or behold them, quicken our reflection
and meditation on Mary's immaculate purity, on her utter humility,
and on her total divine assent and purity of intention as she
undertook her daily work for God.
For our further sanctification, to this end, we undertake
voluntary mortifications of our will, body, intellect, feelings
and life - and of our defects and imperfections - as we examine
ourselves in reflecting on the flower symbols of the five
Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, that we may ever more fully
filled with grace and the virtues.
Many Mary Gardens have been planted around a sculpture of Our Lady
of Fatima, as a visual focus for our prayers and reparational
sacrifices for the graces of peace while gardening - as in the
home Mary Garden illustrated at the beginning of this article, and
in Our Lady's Solar Greenhouse, illustrated here.
Similarly, the Mary Garden at St. Mary's Church, Annapolis, with
its Mary of Nazareth focal statue, was dedicated in 1991 to "Peace
in the Holy Land, in the United States and in the whole world".
As our prayers and daily sacrifices for peace become habitual -
sustained by our flower meditations or otherwise - we gain a sense
of continuous spiritual engagement and interaction with the world
melieu, continuum or noosphere of the effects of sin
interpenetrated by the graces of prayers and the reparations of
sacrifices, such that with each prayer or sacrifice offered, each
flower reflected on, and each world event learned of through the
media, we have a sense of the input of our prayers and sacrifices,
and those of all others, for the building and coming of the
earthly Peaceable Kingdom. Every prayer and sacrifice "counts".
Photos:
Home Mary Garden - Clarence Hobbs, Jr.
Beech Grove, IN
Our Lady's Solar Greenhouse - Bonnie Roberson
Hagerman, ID
Mary of Nazareth - © The Baltimore Sun
Veronica filiformis - © Robert Flogaus-Faust,
Dreieich, Germany*
(others) - Mary's Gardens
*Website
http://www.flogaus-faust.de/index.htm
Fotografien von Wildpflanzen
Index Page
http://www.flogaus-faust.de/flores3.htm
Index der Fotos, nach wissenschaftlichen Artnamen
sortiert S-X
(titles added)
Copyright Mary's Gardens 2002
News Item
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 21, 2003 (Zenit.org).-
This afternoon, different Christian Churches in Iraq will
consecrate the country to the Virgin Mary.
The solemn act will take place at 6:00 p.m. in the Chaldean-rite
Cathedral of St. Joseph in Baghdad, before a statue of the pilgrim
Virgin, Queen of Peace, Vatican Radio confirmed.
For the past few days, the Christians of Baghdad have gathered to
pray around the statue of the pilgrim Virgin, in many churches of
the city. The statue has been on pilgrimage in Iraq since 1998. The
announcement of the consecration was made on Sunday, March 16, in
all the churches of the capital.
The act of consecration will be attended by representatives of the
Catholic Church and of other Christian confessions.
The Chaldean Patriarchate will be represented by Bishop Shlemon
Warduni and Bishop Emmanuel-Karim Delly; the Latin Catholic Church
by Archbishop Jean Benjamin Sleiman; the Syrian Catholic Church by
Archbishop Athanasius Matti Shaba Matoka; the Armenian Catholic
Church by Archbishop Paul Coussa; the Syrian Orthodox Church by
Archbishop Saverius Jamil Hawa; and the Assyrian Church by
Archbishop Ghevargese Warda Daniel Sliwa.
News Item
John Paul II Again Entrusts World to Mary Renews Act of
Consecration of 1984
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 24, 2004 (Zenit.org).- At
a time of "violence, terrorism and war," John Paul II again
consecrated the world to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
During today's general audience in St. Peter's Square, the Pope
renewed the 1984 act of consecration of humanity to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, "responding to what Our Lady had requested at
Fatima."
The Holy Father previously had asked bishops worldwide to carry out
the 1984 act of consecration to Mary in their respective dioceses.
Sister Lucia, one of the visionaries of the Marian apparitions,
confirmed later that the solemn and universal consecration
corresponded to the Blessed Virgin's wishes.
"Humanity was then going through difficult times, of great concern
and uncertainty," John Paul II recalled today. "Twenty years later,
the world continues to be fearfully marked by hatred, violence,
terrorism and war."
"Among the numerous victims that the news records every day, there
are so many defenseless people, stricken while carrying out their
duty," he added at the general audience, which he dedicated to
reflect on this Thursday's solemnity of the Annunciation.
"So much blood continues to be spilt in many regions of the world,"
the Pope said. "The need is still urgent for people to open their
hearts to a courageous effort of reciprocal understanding. The hope
for justice and peace is ever greater in every part of the earth."
"How can we respond to this thirst for hope and love other than by
taking recourse to Christ through Mary?" he asked.
The Holy Father concluded with the prayer he raised on that
historic day 20 years ago.
"Mother of Christ," he said, "may the infinite salvific power of
the Redemption be revealed once again in the history of the world:
power of merciful Love! May it put a stop to evil! May it transform
consciences! May the light of hope be revealed to all in your
Immaculate Heart!"
In his address, the Pope mentioned other key moments of his
pontificate.
He recalled Dec. 8, 1978, when he placed the Church and the world
in Mary's hands in the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Then, on June 4,
1979, during his first trip to Poland as Pope, "I renewed this
entrustment in the Shrine of Jasna Gora."
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